Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Go easy on the Patriotism, please!

Travelling
through the South many years ago, I was struck by the Civil War
Memorial one could find in almost every town large or small. Many
wars later, our towns are dotted with military memorials honoring the
soldiers from World War I, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam and
many other military conflicts. Soon we will get a rash of new
commemorative monuments, by which, we think, we honor the soldiers
who died and those who returned from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Such
memorials are, however well-meaning, no more than evasions. We put
some money in the basket to help pay for the monument. We may even
attend the unveiling. But then we are done dealing with the war and
its aftermath.

But
the veterans are not and we should pay attention to that.

Here
are some uncomfortable facts.

According
to the Army Times of
June 1, 2012 the general US unemployment rate last May was 8.2%.
Unemployment among veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan was
12.7%. Veterans who returned in decent shape and able to go to work,
will often find that work is not available for them.

There has been a great deal of
controversy about health care for returning veterans. In 2007 some
veteran groups sued the government for failing to provide adequate
care for soldiers who returned from Iraq and Afghanistan injured.

The divorce rate among couples
where one or both members are veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan
wars is significantly higher than the divorce rate in the civilian
population. The divorce rate among women veterans is more than twice
that of men who returned from those wars.

Among these soldiers were, and
are, 30,000 single fathers and mothers. When they go off to war they
leave behind one or more children. What happens to them? A bronze
statue in the middle of town will not help them grow up as happy and
decent citizens.

Every 80 min. one veteran of
the Iraq and Afghanistan wars attempts suicide.

Why
did they go? There is a great deal of talk about patriotism and
defense of freedom. "In a time of retreat and collapse, when
Americans were urged to maintain their routines and get on with their
lives, a few people stepped forward and did just the opposite. . . .
they epitomized a raw patriotism that bolstered the nation's spirit
in the bleakest days since Pearl Harbor. " Thus
USA Today
of 9/8/2005. According to the Heritage Foundation, a significant
number of enlistees in the current wars come from well-to-do middle
class and other upper-middle-class families.
(http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2006/10/who-are-the-recruits-the-demographic-characteristics-of-us-military-enlistment-2003-2005)

But
if you look at the facts, the reality is pretty distressing.
According to the Washington
Post,
the bulk of new recruits come from rural areas, and from the people
who are not doing well, who suffer from high unemployment rates and
no prospects for getting to college.

Putting all this together, we
get the picture of young men and women, finding themselves at a dead
end, without any prospects for getting a job, let alone a good job,
or the education they need to improve their lives. They enlist in
the military in order to solve that problem and after one or more
tours in the theater of war, they return to find themselves
unemployed once again. If they are hurt, medical care is hard to come
by. In many cases, their marriages fell apart, while they were gone.
On their return, many of them are sufficiently discouraged to attempt
suicide.

For women the situation is even
worse than for men. A significant percentage of women who served in
the theaters of war were raped by fellow soldiers. If they were
married when they went, when they came home their marriages were
likely to end in divorce.

The picture is thoroughly
disheartening. Our veterans need a whole lot of support. Their
legitimate needs are not met by another war monument or flowery talk
about their patriotism.